The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has reacted to rumors that Sony will introduce a new service for PlayStation gamers designed to be a competitor to Xbox Game Pass. The rumors that Sony is gearing up to introduce the new service have been heating up in the last few weeks. When asked about the rumors by IGN, Phil Spencer said, “when I hear others doing things like Game Pass or coming to PC, it makes sense to me because I think that’s the right answer.”
Spencer also said that he thinks it’s inevitable for the industry to move toward services similar to Game Pass. “I don’t really look at it as validation. I actually, when I’m talking to our teams, I talk about it as an inevitability. So for us, we should continue to innovate, continue to compete, because the things that we’re doing might be advantages that we have in the market today, but they’re just based on us going first, not that we’ve created something that no one else can go create.”
The success of Game Pass certainly makes it seem like an inevitability. Game Pass has become one of the major feathers in Xbox’s exclusivity cap, even more so than exclusive games have been in the past. One of Xbox’s latest exclusive games, Forza Horizon 5, recently reached the staggering milestone of 15 million players in just two months. An achievement that can be largely attributed to its inclusion on day one on Xbox’s Game Pass service.
Sony’s competitor to Game Pass would be beneficial to gamers of both platforms. Whether or not the service would offer all the same perks as Xbox’s offering remains to be seen. After all, it took a few years for Xbox to begin offering its biggest exclusive games, day one on Game Pass. Sony may be reluctant to offer its biggest exclusives on day one from the very beginning.
